Lifetime stressors relate to invisible symptoms of multiple sclerosis

Childhood stressors can increase adult stress perception and may accumulate over the lifespan to impact symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS). Growing evidence links childhood stressors (e.g., abuse, neglect) to fatigue, pain, and psychiatric morbidity in adults with MS; yet literature in this area is lacking a comprehensive lifespan approach. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine contributions of childhood and adulthood stressor characteristics (i.e., count, severity), on three individual outcomes: fatigue, pain interference, and psychiatric morbidity in People with MS (PwMS).

An online survey was distributed through the National MS Society. Hierarchical block regression modeling was used to sequentially assess baseline demographics, childhood stressors, and adult stressors per outcome. We hypothesized that child and adult stressors would significantly contribute to fatigue, pain interference, and psychiatric morbidity.

Overall, 713 PwMS informed at least one final analytic model. Both childhood and adult stressors significantly contributed to pain interference and psychiatric morbidity. Adult stressor severity independently correlated with psychiatric morbidity (P < 0.0001). Childhood stressors significantly contributed to fatigue (LR test P < 0.0001). Childhood stressor severity independently significantly correlated with both fatigue likelihood (P = 0.03) and magnitude (P < 0.001).

This work supports a relationship between stressors across the lifespan and fatigue, pain, and psychiatric morbidity in PwMS. Stressor severity may have an important role which may not be captured in count-based trauma measurement tools. Clinicians and researchers should consider lifetime stress when addressing fatigue, pain, and psychiatric morbidity among PwMS.